The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax

Mrs. Virgil (Emily) Pollifax of New Brunswick, New Jersey, was a widow with grown children. She was tired of attending her Garden Club meetings. She wanted to do something good for her country. This first in the series sends Emily on her first case after she successfully persuades a skeptical CIA recruitment officer that she is the best person for the job.

Barbara Rosenblatt: THE Voice!

My dear fellow readers: I strongly recommend this audiobook to anyone who loves to hear a good story! Dorothy Gilmore writes a fascinating story abo..Show More »ut 60 year old Mrs. Pollifax who becomes a CIA courier... Say what!? Yes, and it is so riveting that I have BOTH the audiobooks AND the books -- and I love listening or reading EVERYTIME! Want a great book... the Pollifax series of stories are AWESOME!!

Any audiobooks narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt are awesome with her gift of hundreds of voices and accents. She stays true to Mrs.Pollifax's voice in each recording. You just fall in love with that spunky little lady with the outrageous hats. Unfortunately not all of the Pollifax books are read by Ms. Rosenblatt and are totally uninspiring! So watch out who the narrator is for these books.

The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax

Emily Pollifax is one of a precious few gray-haired female sleuths who solve their cases through unflagging determination, moral courage and wisdom that comes with age. In "The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax", Emily answers the call of that “nice Mr. Carstairs” to go to Istanbul as a courier and search for a missing agent.

Wonderful story, perfect narration!

I have read and reread all of the Mrs. Pollifax books in hard copy and was thrilled to discover that not only had they come to Audible but that my fav..Show More »orite narrator of all time, Barbara Rosenblat, is reading them. As a senior myself, I can promise that my voice is not as young and resonant as it once was and I have no problem with Ms. Rosenblat's portrayal of the character. The listener needs to keep in mind that Mrs. Pollifax IS a senior and that is what makes her so "amazing". After all, the reason the CIA wanted her was because she is the perfect grandmotherly type. constantly caught up in everyone's troubles and heartaches and thus the most unlikely "spy" ever. This series is fun, exciting and well worth a listen. Try it - you'll like it!

The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax

Mrs. Pollifax has a new hat, and only she and Mr. Carstairs know it conceals eight false passports which she must smuggle into Bulgaria.

Another Delightful Adventure

This is the third in the Mrs. Pollifax series. Again, Dorothy Gilman has created an engaging, and fairly believable, plot. This one sends Mrs. Polli..Show More »fax, a 60-ish widow from New Brunswick, NJ, to Bulgaria on a courier job for the CIA. As always, Mrs. P encounters unexpected danger, some of it created by her own actions, but comes out on top. These books are written with lively humor but still make you care about the characters.

The book is lovely, and is made even better by the narration of Barbars Rosenblat, who can create quite believable male characters and children along with adult female characters. And the accents! In this book, she is called upon to embody American, English, French, Russian, Bulgarian and assorted other Balkan and Eastern European men and women, and handles them all exceedingly well. Each time I listen to one of Rosenblat's performances I am freshly amazed by her skill and talent. Many of the books I have listened to were chosen because she was the narrator.

A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax

Emily “vacations” at an opulent Swiss resort in the hope of locating nine pounds of hijacked plutonium intended for an atom bomb.

Mrs Pollifax is a delight

I started reading the Mrs. Pollifax series back in the middle 1960s. I have read them off and on whenever I came across a book. I understand the Dor..Show More »othy Gilman died in February 2012 so there will be no more books. In this book Mrs. Pollifax is off to Switzerland to a spa hotel for a "rest from the flu" as a cover for her spy job for the CIA. Mrs. Pollifax is a retired teacher, she was bored so applied to the CIA for a part-time job. She is looking for missing plutonium. Of course, she solves the case in a delightful, sometimes funny way but the book is also full of action, suspense, murder, kidnapping, and at times a bit of how did she do that. The book is a great change of pace and leaves one feeling good. Barbara Rosenblat is one of my favorite narrators and she did her usual great job.

Mrs. Pollifax on Safari

A safari expedition in Zambia is the disguise Emily employs in order to locate a professional assassin among her fellow explorers. Along the way, she meets an extraordinary man named Cyrus.

At last!

I have been waiting for the Mrs. Pollifax books narrated by Barbara Rosenblat since I became an Audible member. I am crossing my fingers and hoping t..Show More »hey get the rest of them.

I really enjoy the way Ms. Rosenblat handles all the different accents these books require. Having heard her versions first, I just can't get into those read by different narrators.

If you aren't familiar with Mrs. P, she is a grandmother who ends up working for the CIA and traveling the world making friends while confronting the bad guys with wit and aplomb. These books are sort of "cozy" espionage tales with plenty of excitement & adventure but definitely character based.

This one is #5, but you don't really have to have read the previous ones to be able to get into this one. It is one of my favorites.

Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

Posing as a tourist, Emily makes her way to China with the job of protecting a CIA treasure.

Delightful!

In this sixth adventure of Mrs. Pollifax, she is sent by Mr.Carstairs, her CIA boss, on a tour of the People's Republic of China with the object..Show More »ive of locating a particular man in a particular barber shop in a warren of alleyways outside the walls of a historic Chinese city. Once she finds the man, she is to attempt to get information from him about the exact location of a particular work camp where dissidents are held.

Written in 1983, this book deals with China in a period of very tense relations between the US and China, when the Chinese government kept an iron fist over the Chinese people, and foreign tourism was tightly restricted. As a result, a large part of Mrs. P's mission was to get away from the tour long enough to locate the man in question, get the information from him, and get back to the tour group without being caught in any suspicious behavior. Then she was supposed to hand the information over to another member of her tour group and her mission was finished. Of course, Emily Pollifax can never simply do her job and withdraw -- she will always want to help any person who could use assistance. And so she gets more deeply involved than was intended.

One of the best parts of Mrs. Pollifax stories is not the mission she is sent on, but the people she encounters and becomes friends with. In this book, the members of her tour group are a varied bunch of Americans, and there is a lot of personal emotion going on in the group. Mrs. P becomes personally involved with several of the group, advising young people about relationships, and not-so-young people about life in general. She forms an emotional attachment to the young American agent she was sent to help, and as a result becomes more emotionally involved than in some other adventures.

Emily Pollifax is such a delightful, amusing and caring little old lady that the books written about her are warm, funny, suspenseful and heartwarming all at the same time. They always provide a lovely escape from the everyday lives we lead.

As usual, Barbara Rosenblat is amazing in narration, providing Emily with the absolutely perfect sweet little old lady voice while also providing spot-on portrayals of Americans fvrom various regions of the country and of Chinese characters, both male and female. If you see Mrs. P books read by someone else, avoid them -- only Rosenblat will do!

Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha

Emily’s tranquil domesticity with new husband Cyrus is interrupted when she is called to Hong Kong in pursuit of a vanished agent.

Not as "light," but still Mrs. Pollifax

I probably would not listen again, although I enjoyed it the first time. I rarely listen to books a second time anyway, but this was a more somber boo..Show More »k than the others in the series, and I'd rather move on.

Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle

A relaxing holiday in Thailand turns into a nightmare when Emily loses Cyrus to kidnappers.

Mrs. Pollifax to the Rescue!

Once again, Emily Pollifax has a simple mission for Carstairs, just a simple addition to her planned vacation to Thailand with her husband Cyrus Reed...Show More » But things go wrong immediately when Cyrus is abducted, and Mrs. P goes after him. Many interesting twists in this adventure, and new friends made, as well as old friends found.

Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish

All Mrs. Pollifax has to do is help a bumbling CIA agent confirm the identities of seven undercover informants in Morocco. A simple assignment. But right away, things go wrong. The first informant is murdered just after Mrs. P. identifies him in Fez. Worse, she has the frightening sensation that her associate is not who or what he says he is.

Mrs. Pollifax rules!

While I have read all of the hard-copy books in this series, Barbara Rosenblat's narration (as always) gives these titles a life of their own. I love..Show More » the fact that each of these books takes place in a different part of the world (obviously well-researched) so even if the heroine is an American housewife, the stories take on an exotic flavor that is both interesting and light-hearted. In fact, the whole premise of a middle-aged woman becoming a CIA spy is so goofy as to make Mrs. Pollifax irresistible.

Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief: Mrs. Pollifax, Book 10

A former CIA operative turned art dealer waits in Italy, wounded and in hiding, for the cavalry. According to his SOS, only Mrs. Pollifax will do....

Mrs. P in Sicily

An old friend needs help desperately - so Mrs. P heads to Sicily. Then finds that there are quite a few people following her, and interested in her do..Show More »ings. An old adversary shows up, and then things really get interesting! Once again, laugh-out-loud moments are interspersed with touching moments, and nothing is ever just the way it seems. Mrs. Pollifax even gets to ride a bicycle! Excellent narration makes this adventure even better.

Mrs. Pollifax Pursued

A missing salami leads Mrs. Pollifax to a shocking discovery: a woman is hiding in her house. Even more unsettling is the revelation that ever since the young woman had a chance encounter with the heir to the throne of Ubangiba, she has been followed by deadly hit men. What do these men want?

Fun change of plot for Mrs P novel

Love to brain chill with a Mrs. P novel every now and then. Its like eating a cream puff, nothing really there, but enjoyable anyway. This is differen..Show More »t than the usual formula for Mrs P books and I enjoyed the change up, made me want to read the next.

Mrs. Pollifax Pursued

Kadi Hopkirk has been hiding in Mrs. Pollifax's junk closet for two days. Kadi spills out an improbable story - that since a chance meeting with a childhood friend she has been followed by persons unknown in a sinister van. A little experiment on Mrs. P's part proves at least this part of the story correct. What began as a dash for safety and a call for help expands into an assignment that leads to hair-trigger violence in exotic places.

disappointing audio

Love Mrs. Pollifax stories, but this audio rendition is terrible. I wish the narrator (who was just fine) could have read the book himself without th..Show More »e programmers inserting a hollow, unnatural woman's voice as Mrs. Pollifax.

Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer

Emily Pollifax accompanies her young friend Kadi back to Africa, where a mutual friend is to be crowned king of his small country. But when several people are slashed by murderous lion claws and Kadi disappears, Mrs. Pollifax must begin a perilous investigation. Fortunately for all, staunch determination and polished karate skills are on her side.

Great series

Absolutely loved this whole series. Narration was great except for the last book in the series. Loved the locations and the detailed description abo..Show More »ut the people, customs, and traditions. Mrs. Pollifax character was a delight and loved her. Listened to the series twice through I enjoyed it so much. The narrator was so good, I can't imagine that reading the books would have been nearly as enjoyable.

Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer

In response to a desperate SOS, Kadi Hopkirk flies to the African country of Ubangiba, where her childhood friend, Sammat, is soon to be crowned king. Mrs. Pollifax, reluctant to allow the girl to venture alone into what she fears may be grave danger, crashes the party.

I miss Babara Rosenblat

This was an adequate reading, but I somehow felt that the reader was condescending to the characters.

Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist

Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist whisks the gray-haired agent into a perilous web of intrigue that spreads across the drifting sands of the volatile Middle East. An old CIA friend, Farrell, must collect an inflammatory manuscript smuggled out of Iraq into Jordan. Farrell has a simple request for Emily—provide cover during his trip to Jordan by posing as his fun-loving elderly cousin. But before the plane even lands, danger begins stalking the sprightly Mrs. Pollifax.

Cute

This addition to the Mrs. Pollifax adventures is more modern than the previous books. Since the Cold War has ended, she now goes to Jordan for Carstai..Show More »rs, on what is supposed to be a simple mission. But it is never simple when Mrs. Pollifax is involved, and she finds herself trying to outwit two groups of bad guys, making friends who help her accomplish her mission, and, best of all, making Saddam Hussein's life difficult! As usual, the narration by Barbara Rosenblat is excellent, though the story is pretty absurd. That is part of its charm, and I love a story that makes me laugh. This story can stand alone, but you will want to download and read her other adventures after reading this one!

Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled

Seven weeks ago, a young American woman, Amanda Pym, faced down hijackers on board a flight to the Middle East and saved the lives of more than two hundred passengers. In a blaze of celebrity, she stepped off the plane in Damascus and was whisked away in a waiting car. Since then, NOTHING. The CIA believes she was kidnapped and murdered. Whose plans has the apparently ordinary young woman interfered with? The machinations of the mukhabarat, Syria's dreaded police?

Saddness...

The Mrs. Pollifax series has been brain "cotton candy" for me and my grandmother to enjoy together. Over the years, I gradually acquired the whole ser..Show More »ies for grandma... except this book... I was waiting for Barbara Rosenblat to record it. I finally gave up... apparently it isn't going to happen. Although Sharon Williams is a fine narrator, every time she spoke for Mrs. Pollifax it jarred me, because it just wasn't the right voice. This book, the last of the series, is very short, borrows heavily from plot lines in prior books (kept thinking I had read it before) and just plain old isn't as good as her previous books. If you want to check out this series, start with "The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax" #1 and read more or less in order... stop before reading this one... unless you really, really love them.